Israel allows commercial goods into blockaded Gaza

A Gaza border official says Israel has allowed a commercial shipment of shoes and clothes into the Palestinian territory for the first time since 2007.

Raed Fattouh says 10 trucks ferrying shoes and clothes entered the Hamas-run strip on Sunday. He says many of the goods were damaged after more than two years in storage.

It was the first non-humanitarian shipment of such items,meant for Gaza’s merchants and their stores. An Israeli army spokesman says Israel allows such items into Gaza occasionally as part of aid shipments coordinated with the U.N.

Gaza has been under a strict Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized control of the area. There are shortages of many basic goods and merchants rely on smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border.